Workers at Ameren’s Callaway Energy Center near Fulton will install a new, multi-million dollar piece of equipment later this year.

Ameren said it’s a nuclear reactor vessel head, which protects important parts of the reactor, and will be installed during a refueling outage in a few months. Barry Cox, Ameren’s Senior Director of Nuclear Operations, said the outage will come around mid-October.

The piece will replace a 30-year-old vessel head, which has been in use since the reactor opened back in 1984. Ameren said it invested $145 million in the new part.

The Callaway Energy Center near Fulton remains closed after a small fire in the turbine building.

Ameren Missouri says that workers have been performing tests and repairing damage from a small fire Friday night. The fire was in the "non-nuclear" power-generation side of the Callaway County nuclear facility. An Ameren spokesman says cables that connect the plant to the electric grid shorted, causing nearby insulation to catch fire.

An earlier press release said the center is "out of service in accordance with safety protocols and procedures."

The Callaway Energy Center just outside Fulton is back in service this week after a routine shutdown for refueling and maintenance. The plant was out of commission for 50 days while several new modifications were made in addition to normal inspections and tests.

Barry Cox, the senior director of nuclear operations for the plant, says the improvements mean it will take a few days for the plant to get back to full capacity.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has put a freeze on issuing licenses for new plants and 20-year renewals for existing ones following a ruling by a federal Appeals Court.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled in June that the practice of allowing nuclear plants to store spent fuel rods on site doesn’t meet federal environmental standards. The decision in essence bars the awarding of any new licenses until the industry begins addressing the problem of storing nuclear waste.

A former engineer at the Callaway Nuclear Plant is requesting that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, look into possible violations of the operating license at the Callaway plant, owned and operated by Ameren Missouri.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials and documents describe the Callaway Nuclear Power Plant just south of Fulton, MO as having a safety conscious work environment. However, since 2005, there have been at least 14 documented allegations of discrimination against employees for reporting safety concerns at the Callaway plant, according to commission reports.